FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 2009-2010

You'll notice that this year's first day of school outfit is identical to last year's first day of school outfit. Cowboy Cowen insisted. He wanted to wear his favorite outfit, and this is it. Last night the kids all put their first day of school outfits on the floor, laid out so they could see all the items in the ensembles. Cowen laid his out, then ran upstairs and got his boots and put his socks halfway into the boots. Then he got a rope and put the rope by the end of the "arm" of his "cowboy" and then put the horse next to the cowboy. It was pretty hilarious.

Cowen has already gotten into the spirit of "Mountain Man Month." I asked him to set the table and he said, "No, Mom. I a mountain man and them don't do nuffin' them don't want to. Them go off by themselves."

Flashback to Wyatt.

Is it in the male DNA??

Way too big.

First day of GRADE ONE!!!!

Trio--and I'm not talking about Dolly.

After devotional, music time, and math time, we headed over to Julie's for some Mountain Man activities. We ground up meat for beef jerky (which we'll eat next Wednesday on our Explorer Hike). Grinding meat is . . . kind of gross actually. Especially when baby Eli crawled into the splattered blood before I noticed him. Blech.

We had puffed wheat squares as a treat because it looks like it could be made with molasses and that's mountain-manny. Sort-of. Work with me here.

Thanks to Julie (who is amazing) the kids also put the cord in their new possibles bags (which she'd sewn for them earlier). Yeah!! Then they decorated their bags with fabric marker.

I forgot to take a picture but we started our mini rendev. with a little competition. The kids raced, they long-jumped, they high-jumped (who could hit the highest on the house), and they drank lemonade really fast. All very fun sporting events that aren't as likely to end in bloodshed as knife-throwing.

It was a fun day and everyone had a great time. The highlight though? Ty's new bunk bed.

I can't blame them. "Snakes" comes to mind.